Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, my comments will be about justice in the smaller communities in the North. Mr. Speaker, the Charter of Rights requires that legal counsel be provided to persons charged with committing a crime who cannot afford a lawyer or that representation by counsel is essential for the accused to receive a fair trial.
Mr. Speaker, in the Deh Cho region, adequate representation for those accused of serious crimes is simply not available. The court workers, when they are available and do attend court, do what they can for those accused of minor crimes and usually this is sufficient. However, those persons accused of more serous crimes in the Deh Cho, those crimes from which upon conviction a person faces significant jail time, their rights are not being met.
Mr. Speaker, I question how anyone can think that a legal aid lawyer can offer an accused person a quality defence based on a ten minute conversation that occurs half an hour before a trial. How can we justify this lack of pre-trial preparation and consultation between the client and lawyer? How can we justify an insufficient number of legal translators in the Deh Cho? I ask, are my constituents no longer entitled to a trial in their first language?
It is little wonder that the Northwest Territories has an inflated inmate population when compared to other Canadian jurisdictions. Mr. Speaker, when you combine the Northwest Territories' inflated inmate population with the fact that the majority of those inmates are of aboriginal descent, we begin to see the magnitude of this problem. How many of our residents are in jail because of inadequate or expedited defences? How many can say they have not received a fair trial and thus have had their constitutional rights ignored, because of the way that justice is delivered in the Northwest Territories? I am guessing, Mr. Speaker, that the number would shock you.
It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that the lack of available fiscal resources has meant that we have had to concentrate the majority of funding for enforcement and incarceration. We do not have the money to put into crime prevention. We have to put some money into probation services by creating our own stand-alone probation services. This may help, but I do not see any of these probation officers living in my community.
Mr. Speaker, there are three RCMP officers in Fort Providence to enforce the law and protect the residents; we are grateful for that. However, Mr. Speaker, there must be a corresponding balance in the justice system by protecting the accused and ensuring that their rights under the Constitution and charter are upheld. Mr. Speaker, I intend to question the Minister responsible for Justice on the rights guaranteed to all Canadians via the Constitution. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause